Illinois legislators to hear about heroin abuse in Rockford

Wednesday

Feb 19, 2014 at 4:02 PMFeb 19, 2014 at 4:38 PM

By Georgette BraunRockford Register Star

ROCKFORD - Illinois legislators will hold a hearing to collect information about the growing epidemic of local heroin abuse on March 1 at Rock Valley College, and the public is invited to give testimony.

Last year in Winnebago County, which has a population of about 292,000, 51 of the 124 overdose deaths were heroin-related, according to Winnebago County Corner Sue Fiduccia. That number is up significantly from 2005 when there were a total of 37 overdose deaths in Winnebago County. By comparison, in Kane County, a collar county of Chicago with a population of about 930,000, there were a record 46 heroin-related deaths last year.

The focus of the March 1 hearing is for up to 13 members of the state House and Senate who will attend to learn about how heroin affects youth in the Rockford area and to consider enacting laws based on their findings. The meeting is being organized through the state's Young Adult Heroin Task Force that was formed a year ago. It will feature talks by Rockford-area police, a public schools administrator, the Winnebago County coroner and state's attorney, and a Rosecrance addiction treatment specialist.

But Rep. John Cabello, R-Machesney Park, a member of the youth task force, said legislators also want to hear at the meeting about local adults affected by heroin abuse.

Cabello hopes to be named to a new heroin task force that House Speaker Michael Madigan announced Tuesday. That task force, which will host hearings in Chicago and its suburbs during the spring legislative session, does not zero in only on youths. Cabello said he hopes to arrange for a separate hearing in Rockford arranged through that task force.

Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, will lead the new task force. Lang said in an Associated Press article this week that the heroin crisis is plaguing Illinois, particularly families in Chicago and the suburbs. He called for "bold" legislative action.

Cabello said fellow legislators have been unaware of the big heroin problem in Winnebago County.

The nation is facing a heroin overdose surge as well.

According to a Feb. 10 story in the New York Times, the most recent federal data shows 3,094 heroin deaths nationally in 2010; 88 percent were white, half were younger than 34 and almost a fifth were ages 15 to 24.

"It's time that everybody starts realizing what a dangerous problem this is," said Cabello, who hosted a heroin awareness seminar in January at Harlem High School in Machesney Park. "We have to bring it to light so we can solve the problem."